Nani Afrida, Aceh Jaya – It was once too dangerous to dine out in Aceh Jaya's Tuwe village, a former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) stronghold and the scene of frequent fighting between guerrillas and soldiers.
But now the ominous sound of gunfire, which used to be common in the former military "black"-zoned district of Panga, has been replaced with good-natured banter.
Gary LaMoshi, Bali – US President George W Bush's scheduled 10-hour trip to Indonesia on Monday has entailed vast security preparations and logistical inconveniences and has evoked mass demonstrations across the country calling for the visit to be canceled.
Controversial British arms company, BAE Systems, is coming under renewed attack for attending this week's second Indonesia arms fair to be held in Jakarta from 22-25 November.
Abdul Khalik, Bogor – At least two of the experts who attended the bilateral talks between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and US President George W. Bush, are unsure whether their rapid-fire meetings with the American leader will amount to anything useful.
Evi Mariani, Brussels/Belgium – Poverty and human rights abuses are still serious problems in Indonesia, with non-governmental organizations presenting a bleak report on both issues at a recent meeting in Brussels, Belgium.
Bogor, Bandung, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Makassar – Some braved the rain to protest, while other chose to watch proceedings from afar during the visit of United States President George W. Bush to Bogor on Monday.
Charmain Mohamed – Despite all its recent progress, Indonesia remains far from a fully functioning democracy. Religious intolerance is on the rise. Military reform is stalled. The normal checks and balances that form part of any democratic society remain far from taking root. Thus when US President George W.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The Golkar Party's demand last week for a Cabinet reshuffle to enable it to place more party members in senior positions has not impressed political analysts.
The party controls 128 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives but only has three party members in the Cabinet.
Jakarta – A local human rights organization has accused the government of violating the right to freedom of expression. The Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) said that the government was monitoring and recording the online activities of Internet users.
Dili – A Brazilian missionary has been killed after being caught up in communal fighting in East Timor's capital, a UN spokeswoman and a government statement said on Monday.
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Muhammad Kalianda is tired of waiting for help to build a new home to replace the one destroyed in the December 2004 tsunami. So the 53-year-old teacher is slowly working alone to finish the building an aid agency promised him.
Urip Hudiono, Hanoi/Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has warned people not to "excessively" protest US President George W. Bush's visit on Monday, as Muslim militants publicly called for Bush's assassination and thousands of people rallied across the country to oppose the meeting.
Jerry Norton, Jakarta – Thousands of protesters ranging from militant youths to mothers carrying babies demonstrated across Indonesia against US President George W. Bush on Sunday, a day before he visits the world's most populous Muslim country.
Sydney may have led Australia in promoting its Mardi Gras marches, but this doesn't translate into widespread acceptance of sexual difference in the country next door. "Poofter-bashing" is still a hazard for homosexuals in some parts of a nation that claims to be liberal and progressive. So what about Indonesia, a land rigid with religion, tense with taboos?
Bhimanto Suwastoyo, Jakarta – Thousands of hardline Muslims have rallied against US President George W. Bush's visit to Indonesia, with some militants calling for the killing of the American leader.
Zakki Hakim, Jakarta – Thousands wound through the streets of Indonesia's capital and gathered at a grand mosque Sunday to protest President Bush's upcoming visit to the world's most populous Muslim nation, some chanting "War criminal" and "You are a terrorist!"
J. Osdar – Indonesian journalists roared with laughter when they witnessed the general elections or great election in the Malaysian state of Sabah in 1985. The total number of voters was only 300,000 out of a population of 1.2 million. But more than 30 political parties had registered to contest the elections.
Mark Forbes – On Banda Aceh's outskirts sits a deserted village of banana yellow fibro shacks, held together with duct tape and built without water or power in the middle of a flood plain.
Palu, Central Sulawesi – Protests against US President George W. Bush's planned visit to Indonesia on Nov. 20 continue in parts of the country.
Jakarta – The government promised on Friday that Lapindo Brantas Inc. would still be held responsible for the damage caused by the Sidoarjo mudflow, despite a change in the company's ownership.
A wide range of U.S. organizations have urged President Bush "to refrain from promising any military assistance to Indonesia's armed forces" on his upcoming visit to Indonesia. President Bush will meet with Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Bogor on Monday.
Duncan Campbell – Indonesia is of vital strategic importance to Australia. That much is generally agreed. How we should deal with that reality is not. In making another security arrangement – a second attempt – with Indonesia, the Howard Government has erred. Indonesia scrapped the first security arrangement when we stepped into the East Timor crisis.
Duncan Graham, Surabaya – There's a critical five-letter word absent from the Framework for Security Cooperation agreement signed this week (Monday Nov. 13) in Lombok between Indonesia and Australia. The missing word is "Papua".
Jakarta – A coalition of non-governmental organizations demanded Thursday that the Attorney General's Office (AGO) investigate the 1997/1998 forced disappearances of political activists.
Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – Indonesia's economy appears to be on track again, growing by 5.52 percent in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from the same period a year earlier on a revival in consumer spending and strong commodity exports, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported Thursday.
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The government and all political factions at the House of Representatives have agreed to continue listing religion on identity cards.
Yogyakarta - Scores of protesters demonstrated in front of the Agung State Place Building in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta yesterday criticising the state of the nation, particularly in relation to the foreign debt. The protesters came from the Yogyakarta chapter of the Preparatory Committee for the National Liberation Party of Unity (KP-Papernas).
Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – Anticorruption activists say forces linked with former president Soeharto's Golkar Party are attempting to obstruct the fight against Indonesia's deep-rooted graft.
Australians are getting a rare opportunity to learn about Timor-Leste and to better understand its story through Chega!, the Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR).
Jakarta – In another twist to the Sidoarjo mud volcano disaster, PT Energi Mega Persada (EMP) says it has sold PT Lapindo Brantas Inc., its unit that operates the gas well that caused the massive mud eruption in East Java, to an unaffiliated company.
Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Criminologist Adrianus Meliala laments the government's lack of action against crimes involving state officials.
During the inauguration Wednesday of his professorship at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Adrianus said that taking no action to stop crimes was a crime in itself.
Jakarta – A high level meeting of ASEAN countries in Jakarta called on Indonesian government officials Wednesday to collaborate and approach the grassroots community to promote gender equality.
Regional Program Director of UNIFEM for East and Southeast Asia, Jean D'Cunha, said that various ministries needed to think and act to solve various gender inequality issues.
Adam Henry – The enigmatic Jakarta Lobby is "... an informal group of like-minded people who regard Indonesia as a special case". It is not a clandestine conspiracy, but an alliance of elites although some would deny the group's very existence.
Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Clean air campaigners were careful about selecting a smoke-free dining establishment as the venue for a public discussion in Cikini, Central Jakarta, on Thursday.
The waitresses, however, had gone about placing ashtrays on every table, encouraging some participants to light up.
Dili – Four people are believed to have died in the latest East Timor violence which also saw 10 homes torched, Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta said today.
"There is as yet no confirmation on the number killed, but initial information said four (were killed) and 10 houses were set on fire," Mr Ramos Horta said.
President Bush should ask the Indonesian president about his government's failure to convict anyone for the fatal poisoning of Munir Said Thalib two years ago, a leading human rights advocacy organization wrote in a letter this week. President Bush meets his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in Bogor, Indonesia, on November 20.
Jakarta – The country's antimoney laundering watchdog, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), says it has noticed a significant jump in the number of suspicious transactions over the course of the year.
Niniek Karmini, Mantangai – With smoke from nearby forest fires stinging his eyes, the conservationist aims his tranquilizer dart at the orangutan high in the Borneo jungle. After several misses he manages to knock her out.
Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta/Medan – A non-government group claims many of the houses built for tsunami victims on Nias island in North Sumatra have been illegally sold, leaving disaster survivors without shelter.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – A noted Papuan figure criticized the Indonesian government on Tuesday, saying it was only interested in the province's natural resources, not its people, but praised former president Abdurrahman Wahid.
Jakarta – With six days to go before the arrival of US President George W. Bush in Indonesia, protests against his 10-hour visit reached a new volume across the country Tuesday.
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Protesters demanding an increase in the minimum wage scuffled with security officers Tuesday in front of the offices of the Bandung regency and local legislative council in Soreang.
Jakarta – The defamation articles in the Criminal Code are undemocratic and must be revoked or amended, a prominent constitutional law expert told a court hearing Tuesday.
Suherdjoko, Cilacap – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was greeted Tuesday by hundreds of protesting residents when he arrived to open a new coal-burning power plant in Cilacap, Central Java.
Some 600 residents of the nearby Griya Kencana Permai housing complex, located about 500 meters west of the power plant, participated in the peaceful protest.
Amy Goodman – The troops marched slowly, their US-made M-16s raised. It was Nov. 12, 1991, a day that would forever be seared into my memory, and into history. I was reporting in East Timor, a small island nation 300 miles north of Australia, brutally occupied by Indonesia since 1975.
Jakarta – Local and foreign analysts are upbeat that Indonesia will be able to meet its economic growth target of 6.3 percent next year despite an expected slowdown in world trade.
Ellen Whinnett – East Timorese refugees say they have been threatened with visa cancellations if they do not support the Labor Party.
Several sources have told the Herald Sun that many members of the East Timorese community living in Richmond have been bullied by ALP officials, who ordered them to sign up as members or otherwise make cash donations.
Dili – Nearly 1,000 soldiers and police paraded on the streets of East Timor's capital Dili Wednesday in an apparent gesture of reconciliation after their differences contributed to unrest earlier this year.
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – After months of violence, hundreds of youths from rival gangs have gathered on the streets of Dili to embrace each other, shed tears and celebrate a fragile peace.
"It seems that peace, not war, is breaking out in East Timor," the country's Prime Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, said yesterday.
Mark Forbes in Senggigi, Lombok – With two signatures and a handshake, Indonesia and Australia have proclaimed a new era of closer relations with a treaty aimed at ending a roller-coaster of diplomatic crises.
The ambitious security treaty was signed last night by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, and his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirayuda, in Lombok.